Thursday, February 5, 2009

Thank You, Glenn Reynolds -- Instapundit

Thanks to everyone, and especially Professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.Com, who posted links to my essays on liberal flip-flopping, silence and acquiescence in response to the news that Obama will retain some aspects of the heavily maligned "rendition" program utilized by Bush. Although the essays sparked some buffoonery, for the most part people seemed to enjoy the commentary.

Reynolds is a conservative libertarian (if Wiki is reliable). Notably, only a handful of liberal libertarians found these sobering stories tolerable. What was that great line from the movie "A Few Good Men" about handling truth?

9 comments:

You sure you don't just want to defect over to our side? We could use a good shot of activism on a few key issues that we agree upon. The rest we can work out the details in the fine print. Have your people get in touch with my people and we'll talk over Sushi, lol. Congrats on making it into Instapundit, pretty cool!

Look, break down your argument. 1) Orgs like Human Rights Watch are flipping - yes. Either there complaints under Bush were too broad, or they're hypocrisizing for Obama. 2) Liberals/progressives - well, the gamut is more complicated than for rights orgs. Not everyone has thought through the nuances of why there might be other reasons to rendition people without court supervision. Any good reasons or none? Someone mentioned snagging Eichmann - any others? There are 2 problems - the first is simply the non-chalance to abet torture, the second is whether rendition vs. formal extradition is always a horrible, moral idea. 3) Obama flips. Well, he'll ride the edge of the coin, doing as little to confront the status quo as possible. Surprised? I'm not. Master of weasel words and inspiration - I guess they go together. Anyway, we'll see how well he can hold this together. Off to a rocky start.

How did you know I love sushi?! Well, I have some friends from back home who are staunch conservatives, and they visit the blog. Plus I have tons of students who have been conservative over the years. Most of my friends are liberals or moderates. I think my new category for myself is "post-partisan progressive." I am for anyone who wants to think in a forward fashion! And you are definitely one of those.

Decidere - I am not sure how it will work out. I think that some liberals were overreaching in their arguments either because it was Bush or because they had not thought through the implications of banning rendition altogether (which might have resulted because it was Bush using the policy). Now, there is silence, or defensiveness or claims of hypocrisy. I am on the "claims of hypocrisy" team. I really do not have an answer about rendition. My con law instincts say that the government must have some power to do it, but that we must balance that against the rights of persons who are "rendered." That's what judges do when they face complex situations. But defensiveness, silence and denial are just not options here. And citing to Eichmann is not the answer either because Eichmann could have been taken legally. There was just cause to return him for numerous war crimes. And if it could not happen through lawful means, at least the argument is that rendition was a last resort. But it is anti-liberal to justify violations of civil liberty by pointing to the outcome.

Ah, fellow sushi afficionado. Actually, two. May I join? We would have quite a time of it!

Decidere--he's riding on the edge of the coin? Ouch!

AS for making it to Instapundit--congratulations; I'm going to go over to see what this guy is all about. And, I am not surprised--you present some pretty powerful and sharp points. Another ouch for some. :)

As a general comment, looking back at the past two weeks (gosh, only two weeks?) and Mr. O's speech tonight--raised voice, beating eyebrows, snarling expression, etc--uh, is there something coming off the wagon here? Like a couple of little wheels?

Am I just seeing things? It's way too soon, I'd say. It feels to me like it's amateur hour. Screaming at the Republicans and threatening who knows hwat catastrophy is not how one takes leadership; one which he has abrogated to Congress and Pelosi/Reed on one of the most important items of his Presidency--it's not Gitmo; it's not rendition; it's the economy, stupid. And for him to let others lead, that is very disappointing. Perhaps he has no ideas of his own, or doesn't want to take responsibility for any--but this is not a campaign. This is the real thing. The buck does stop in the Oval Office. If a ridiculously bad and damaging bill is passed, it won't be Congress who will be blamed, but the President.

od point Aeneas ~ We have seen so many magazine covers, radio, and internet feeds that the TV interviews barely stands out. These last two weeks have been nothing but sophomoric drama! There is so much hype that Obama is coming across an some icon figure - just like Mickey Mouse. I am just wondering if this is going to be “the way it is now” with each and every good and bad (Daschle , Killefer, Geithner…)decision argued and justified via the media? There only way to escape this will be to watch the Disney Channel - with the way things are going in DC it might as well be the Magic Kingdom!

About Me and the Blog

Professor Darren Hutchinson teaches Constitutional Law, Remedies, Race and the Law, and a Civil Rights Seminar at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Professor Hutchinson also holds the prestigious Stephen C. O’Connell Chair.
Professor Hutchinson received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Before teaching law, Professor Hutchinson practiced commercial litigation at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton in New York City. He also clerked for the late Honorable Mary Johnson Lowe, a former United States District Judge in the Southern District of New York.
Professor Hutchinson's research has appeared in many prestigious journals including the Cornell Law Review, Washington University Law Review, UCLA Law Review, University of Michigan Journal of Race and Law, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law.
He has also presented his research at numerous universities, including Yale, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley, University of Virginia, Cornell, Georgetown, and Boston University.

Pollster.Com, Now on The Huffington Post

Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Blog

FindLaw News - Top Stories

News - Gainesville Sun

Privacy Policy

This site uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information -- but never your name, address, email address, or telephone number -- about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.